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Earlier this month, I set up an interview with the watch designer Sylvain Berneron. At the prearranged time, Berneron’s name and voice appeared on my laptop screen, but there was no video. He apologised for the technical hitch. We must proceed without looking at one another. This, frankly, was a relief. Stylish, charming, French, and so good-looking you feel like bursting into tears every time you see a picture of him – his wife and business partner Marie-Alix could also pass for an international model – Berneron is hot in every sense.
The watch designer’s company – also ‘Berneron’ – announced itself to the market towards the end of last year. The response was ecstatic. If no one knew they wanted an asymmetrical dress watch that looked like a mash-up of a Patek Philippe Calatrava and a Cartier Crash, cost the same as a London flat and came in any material you liked – so long as that material was 18k yellow gold or 18k white gold – that changed overnight.
This was the Mirage, Berneron’s debut watch, the first models of which arrive next month.
The Mirage doesn’t just come with a Dalí-esque face. Its movement – the entire eternal structure that makes the watch tick – also looked like it should be hung in the Louvre. This too was made from solid gold. In fact, everything was. Right down to the spring bars – the small pieces of metal that no one sees that are used to hold watch straps in place.
Berneron’s arrival chimes with what has been called ‘the rise of the independents’ – small-batch, high-priced, design-led companies that are giving the top-tier Swiss luxury brands a run in the bragging rights stakes.
What makes Sylvain Berneron unique is that he launched his own brand while maintaining his day job – as chief product officer at Breitling.
Breitling is hugely popular and successful, but it is known for producing adventure-adjacent lifestyle watches, especially pilot’s watches. It has yet to venture into solid gold dress watches with melty faces.
Sylvain’s time at Breitling coincided with the arrival of formidable CEO Georges Kern, formerly of IWC Schaffhausen. Together they transformed an already successful business into a very successful one – according to a Morgan Stanley 2023 report, Breitling entered the top 10 of luxury Swiss watch brands for the first time, joining Rolex, Cartier, Omega and Audemars Piguet.
The designer has been fulsome in his praise of his old boss, for allowing him to crack on with his own project – an unusual situation, to be sure.
“I have to applaud Georges for his open-mindedness. He gave me the permission… I’m allowed to do pieces under my own name,” he said, last year. “And these products have nothing in common with Breitling pieces. Because all the good ideas for modern sports watches, I already give them to Breitling.”
But now Sylvain has gone solo. Based on the reception his watches have had, that seems to be working out nicely.
But enthusiasm alone can’t put food on the table – and the move was a massive roll of the dice, as we shall see…
Congratulations on the reception for Berneron.
It’s a very interesting turn of events, to be honest with you. It has taken 15 years of savings, pretty much all the money I’ve got. I went against the advice of my father to buy a house. Instead, I’m 35-years-old, renting a flat and making weird watches. But I’m happier this way. And I would never have guessed that it would get such positive feedback.
What was your father’s advice?
To save a third of your salary every month, and you will have enough to buy a house. And I stuck to it. Which was not easy. A few years back I got a good job – chief product officer of Breitling. So, I’ve been very tempted to treat myself and spend the money on toys. But I didn’t. And that’s helped me now because I never upgraded my lifestyle. The economics of a project like the Mirage are pretty brutal. I’ve invested CHF1.1m [£970,000], which is all the money I had. I’ve been working almost three years now, seven days a week. And [the watches] haven’t made a single Swiss franc.
What do the rest of your family think?
My mother is no longer with us. She was a painter, so she gave me the artistic inclination – the courage to develop ideas, no matter what the consensus is around them. My dad is more rational and planted into the ground – so he was not happy. My wife is an architect. She works full-time at an architecture agency here in Neuchâtel [Switzerland]. She’s been helping me during the weekends. Of course, I asked her permission because she’s entitled to know…
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